From my experience working in clinical trials projects, assigning multiple project managers for a single project depends on the size of the project, the areas of expertise that each project manager has pertaining to different areas of the project and also the geographical locations where the trial is taking place. For instance a study that is required to enroll patients from more than one country, it would be efficient to have project managers managing the study from each country the trial is conducted in. In a few other projects that enroll patients from more than 5 countries, there can be 3 or more project managers managing every stage of the study due to the size and technicalities associated with it. With regards to project managers with varying areas of expertise, each of them would be responsible for different phase of the trial. One of the project managers would be responsible for Project Initiation like pre-clinical phase, patient enrollment and preparing project charter and the other project manager would be responsible for handling the medical image processing, quality control and regulatory requirements of the project. While working cross-culturally, a project manager from the same cultural background would facilitate better communication with patients and hospital personnel and would result in efficient management of the trial as a whole in that particular geographical location than a project manager who would face cultural and language barriers.

On the other hand, the decision to assign more than one project manager to a study should be made wisely. As each project manager comes with experience from his/her own background, two very different people managing a study would cause clash of opinions and viewpoints and would prove to be detrimental to the successful and timely progression of a study, the company and its deliverables.